Canadian Journal of Botany - Revue Canadienne de Botanique (1993) 71, 136-144

T. Miedaner, Henriette Höxter and H.H. Geiger (1993)
Development of a resistance test for winter rye to snow mold (Microdochium nivale) under controlled environment conditions in regard to field inoculations
Canadian Journal of Botany - Revue Canadienne de Botanique 71 (1), 136-144
Abstract: Twenty-one winter rye inbred lines (Secale cereale) were tested for resistance to Microdochium nivale under artificial inoculation conditions in a 2-year field experiment. Significant genotypic variation was found for snow mold rating, plant loss rating, number of spikes, and grain yield relative to the noninoculated plants. Heritability was highest for snow mold rating (h2 = 0.79). The inbred lines showed a continuous distribution of all characters assessed for both years. Genotype × year interactions were significant for most traits. A reproducible growth chamber test for the evaluation of inbred lines with snow mold was developed. Best results were obtained under the following conditions: (i) hardening of plants by cultivation at low temperatures prior to inoculation, (ii) inoculation at plant growth stage of advanced tillering, (iii) use of actively growing mycelium from shaken liquid culture as inoculum, (iv) cold incubation at a temperature of 1 °C for inoculated plants, and (v) plant recovery period after incubation for at least 1 week in the greenhouse. The length of the cold incubation period of inbred lines at 1 °C was only 11 days due to an incubation of fungal mycelium prior to inoculation and a 2-day incubation of the inoculated plants at 13 °C and 100% relative humidity. For assessing the optimal length of the cold incubation period, the optimal character for disease assessment, the significance of plant recovery after cold incubation, and the correlation to field results, a recently developed species specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used. A significant correlation between the growth chamber test and the 2-year field trial was found with 19 inbred lines for snow mold rating (0.51 < r < 0.57). The correlation could be improved by using the ELISA (0.69 < r < 0.80) to evaluate disease intensity.
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Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
resistance/tolerance/defence of host

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Microdochium nivale	Rye (Secale cereale)